The Google & Microsoft lifestyle: a match made in hell

The War

There was once a time when being a heavy Google services user and a Microsoft fan was the easiest choice on the block. The boys in Redmond could provide a robust and productive operating system platform while the Mountain View search cowboys could back you up with web services. Now, the two companies are going head to head and it might just be causing a hellish nightmare for consumers.

Microsoft has been attacking Google with their now infamous “Don’t get Scroogled” campaign; the advertising strategy is carried out by picking on Google services and software, stating that the company makes money off of you by sharing your personal information with 3rd parties.

On Google’s home front, they are pulling services from with under Microsoft’s feet and refusing to build applications for the operating system giant’s latest platforms including Windows 8 and Windows Phone stating that:

“We have no plans to build out Windows apps. We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8…”

– Clay Bavor, Google Apps Director

But like all fights between corporate giants, the consumers are the people being hurt in the mix. How easy is it for heavy Google services users to pick up Microsoft’s latest operating systems and get to work?

Comscore estimated that Google’s Gmail service was attracting just under 288 million unique visitors in October 2012, while Microsoft’s Hotmail/Outlook service was attracting around 286 million. This pits the number of active users between the two email services very close.

Are we willing to believe Google Director Clay Bavor’s statement that users are truly not to be found in great numbers on Windows Phone or Windows 8? Microsoft’s latest adoption rate for its PC operating system has been lacking behind Windows Vista and Windows 7, but it is still selling. Most likely, Google just isn’t willing to play nice with the boys in Redmond. That being said, the Redmond boys aren’t exactly sharing the playground at the moment (though they did at least add Google Talk support to Outlook.com).

The Users

So how are users actually being affected by Microsoft/Google War? Looking at a possible scenario, based on Google’s post popular services, we can construct a fictitious character (let’s call her Nina) and assume that she uses Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube.

Nina has decided to upgrade her current Windows 7 laptop to a Windows 8 Ultrabook hybrid (let’s say the Lenovo IdeaPad YOGA). After booting up the machine she heads to the Windows store to download her collection of Google applications.

Right away, on her search for an official Gmail application, she notices that there isn’t one. Other apps from smaller email hosting providers and even Yahoo, but there is no Google. Interesting that Yahoo is able to publish an application for the platform, but Google (one of the largest email services in the world) just doesn’t have time.

Nina can use the built in Windows 8 Mail application and she decides to go ahead and do so, but there is no push support for her account and she is limited to grabbing her email every 15 minutes – a bit troublesome since she wants to know exactly when her latest digital issue of Popular Mechanics is in, but she can deal with it.

Back in December of last year Google made a move to pull support for Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol, giving Microsoft just over a month to solve the problem. Currently, Microsoft is supporting Gmail’s IMAP protocol allowing users to receive their email (just not instantly via push).

In addition, Google chose to now support calDAV and cardDAV, two protocols not supported by Microsoft, to push calendar and contact information. As of now, Windows Phone and Windows 8 products do not support either although Windows Phone users who get the upcoming GDR2 update, will reportedly have this feature. Users can also opt for a third-party Gmail App that gives a near native like experience.

As a result of Microsoft and Google battling it out, Nina is left with an incomplete email service that won’t sync her contacts and calendar. Microsoft’s suggestions is to switch to their Outlook email service. Google’s suggestion is to… buy a Chromebook? The Mountain View company has not made it clear to Gmail users on Windows 8 what they should do, for now – they are in the cross fire.

Google Search applications are currently the only apps published by Google for Microsoft’s platforms. This makes Nina quite happy and she downloads the application and pins it to her Start Screen. She isn’t exactly happy with Microsoft’s decision to integrate Bing into the entire system, but for her, the Google application makes up for it. Same goes for other Google services like Voice or Maps, which need the assistance of third party apps.

Lastly Nina wants to sit back and watch some cat videos on YouTube and once again, there is no official Google application to do so. Luckily the world’s best YouTube client MetroTube (seriously, this isn’t an advertisement – it is awesome) is available for download.

The Future

As of now, the Microsoft ecosystem relies on third party applications like MetroTube, MyTube or MetroTalk to connect its users to core Google services. The problem begins to arise when Microsoft platform users cannot access Google protocols (for example: calendar and contacts).

Trying to live the Google/Microsoft lifestyle is currently viable thanks to 3rd party developers, like LazyWorm Applications, and their willingness to work with current Google APIs. But what would happen if Google tightened their YouTube API?

We can see this issue with the current Google+ API for developers – there really isn’t one. While basic access to Google+ is available, there isn’t a complete system for developers in place; this results in applications that simply serve as launchers (similar to a web bookmark).

To summarize, the two corporate technology giants are flinging shots at each other left and right. While Microsoft chooses to attack Google in advertisements to try and advance their Bing service and Windows Phone platform, Google chooses to restrict access to essential APIs and refuses to build applications for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

This childish game first started growing out of hand when Google made a claim that Microsoft and Apple got “into bed together” to wage a “hostile, organized campaign against Android”. This “organized campaign” was the big patent war of 2012 in which the three companies battled for what they claimed was their own intellectual property.

A war between two of the major conglomerates will always have casualties, and unfortunately for us, this time we are the casualties. We aren’t yet at a state where it is impossible to use Google services on Microsoft platforms, but we are moving towards a stricter ecosystem world where we might see Googlers/Gmail users on one side and Bingers/Outlook users on the other.

We can only hope for the sake of technologies future and for the sake of innovation that the two companies can learn to work together in an ever expanding world of data.

A question to our Gmail users: How do you feel when using your Windows Phone or Windows 8 device? Do you feel restricted and has the wall that Google and Microsoft constructed ever make you feel like jumping the Windows ship and running to the Android platform?

Reader comments

The Google & Microsoft lifestyle: a match made in hell

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I've gone all Microsoft. I'm tired and sick of Google. OK, they're not best friends with Microsoft. OK, Microsoft tease them. But grow up, take care of your users and "fans".
Me, I can gladly live without Google. Started using Outlook.com, no need for Gmail or Google Calendar. Started using Bing, no use for Google Search. Only thing is Chrome. Not quite given up using that browser, too bad. But soon.
I stick to Microsoft, they care. They tried making a Youtube app after all, Google did not.
I do not stop using Microsoft / Windows because Google is not available. I stop using Google!

First off, it's not that hard to leave google behind for the most part. I understand that people don't want to change 100%, as I also have a gmail account that I use regularly. But IMO google services are HUGELY over rated. And truthfully, other than youtube, they are pretty much unnecessary on WP (not sure about W8) because there are far better alternatives for whatever they offer built in... no "apps" needed.
And as far as Gmail is concerned, I've never used an app for it anyway, so going online for my mail is not an inconvenience for me.
But IMO google will (or should) regret this. I know it's difficult for people to view google for what they really are and to view MS positively for some dumb-ass reason, but if/when apple fully pulls away from google services they will change their stance all over again.

I know I'm going to get loads of hate from this but I am an avid user of google's services. I started on google and I don't want to move, they offer a seamless experience with almost every internet service you could ask for. Google's ecosystem is fantastic and getting better all the time. I've tried all the competitors but they don't offer all the services google does. I mean I use: YouTube, search, maps, gmail, wallet, android, chrome, google play, music, google drive, blogger, translate, calendar, docs, google+, hangouts, google now, google sketchup and probably many more. No company offers all of that as well as google does and that's why they're awesome and much better than any microsoft service.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but Google updates things far faster than Microsoft and Nokia. Try looking at aerial photographs and you'll notice that Google map images are updated more frequently than Bing/Nokia. And you can't argue that Chrome is amazing. Saved passwords across ALL platforms? Can IE do that? That's a legitimate question by the way...not sarcasm. And for me, Chrome is just faster than IE.
Say what you will about big brother watching over you shoulder, but you have to admit that Google does do a lot; and to say they are "complete crap" is unfair. Don't get me wrong, I love my 928 and I'm trying to use more and more MS products everyday, but it's not like Google services are completely useless.

Every 'essential' feature you mention is also a part of the Microsoft set of services. So this kind of diminishes your claim that 'Google is awesome' for offering all these features/services.
*Microsoft killed their version of Youtube, so that is the only thing you mentioned that is unique to Google.

You need to poke your head outside the Google bubble once in a while and see what else is happening. It might be also worth noting that Google's privacy policies are significantly different than Microsoft. (Example: A Google employee can do a 'search' for you, and literally read your email and view your content stored on GDocs/GDrive. A Microsoft employee cannot, because it is not human readable or accessible like it is at Google. Maybe you would like a pervert taking an interest in you and your photos, but most people wouldn't. At Microsoft, these are machine readable and dual encrypted data stores, that even if Microsoft wanted to open up an account, it has to fire through a set of machine fired and time based queues. -Like a Safe. And even then the employee can't access the data, as it sends out a 'release' to the user first.)

Well this is an unfortunate situation to be in being a Microsoft os user who uses google services. The only reason I'm using a Gmail because I needed a "professional" email address as other webmail services do not have a good reputation. I really don't need most of the unique features in Gmail.

YouTube doesn't have any true competitor and google is the leader in search and maps so they are a necessary evil if you use the internet.

But lately I've been noticing yahoo is shafting Microsoft users like google now since I don't get the new home page on windows phone. Neither is there a good Flickr app.

Unless I missed it in the article, I'm always confused when I hear people say Google doesn't make apps for Windows 8. They have their own app: http://www.google.com/homepage/windows8/. On the surface (no pun intended), it's just a search app, but the voice search is nice and the Applications link takes you to other services. It's just the browser view in the app, but for someone longing for Google services that wants to just open an app (not favorites in a browser), it seems like a decent compromise.

To answer the question: I'd never switch to Android. I still have my personal Gmail and could switch to Outlook if pushed further. I also have my work email with Google Apps so I have no choice there, but would jump to iPhone if it ever reached a point where WP couldn't get me email/calendar items.

As a Windows Phone user, I've been content. Email and calendar sync just fine. The page for mobile sync settings seems to conveniently not recognize the WP8 browser as mobile all too frequently so I need to fake the Default User Agent on a desktop to make changes sometimes, but at least things work despite the annoyance.

As a Windows 8 user, both parties annoy me. When they gave the Mail/Calendar apps a refresh the first time, Microsoft took away the EAS support and pointed the finger at Google. Google gave EAS a stay of execution while Microsoft sorted things out with WP8 moving toward CalDAV and CardDAV, but when those apps got updated, Microsoft went to IMAP and made a page blaming Google for yanking it. Why is Windows 8 not getting CalDAV and CardDAV support (yes, I know Google is dropping that too, but obviously MS is on the whitelist of those that can keep it)? It's annoying their solution is to move to Outlook. As I mentioned, I don't have a choice with my work email so I'm stuck with a read-only calendar on my tablet because these two can't resolve their stupid little slapfight.

I'll probably be more loyal to Microsoft in this, but I'm far from feeling they're a saint. Neither side realizes the consumers are the ones getting sprayed the most in their pissing match.

All this hand-wringing about Google "withdrawing" support for WP devices could have been avoided if Microsoft would make ActiveSync freely available. Like CalDAV and CardDAV, for example. Plus, no mention of how Google agreed to push back the deadline by six months to give Microsoft more time to get things in order? Google pisses me off all the time but to act like Microsoft is so saintly compared to them is just ludicrous.

Ok, but in that same respect is it fair that the vast majority of people seem to do the opposite... they hold google as in a weird saintly "can-do- no-wrong" light, while MS is looked up with undue disdain, and held to the fire for everything they do or put out.

Why should they make ActiveSync freely available, when even in their OWN products a client side license is necessary, especially when you deal with the corporate world.

Apple seems to have the money to pay the ActiveSync licensing fees, is Google really that poor?

Microsoft created EAS and ActiveSync, and EAS isn't even covered by the same licensing restrictions as full ActiveSync, since one is seen as a non-commercial protocol.

You can't compare a highly evolved and rich technology, even if it is openly documented like ActiveSync to older mechanism that are far less features and less secure.

PS Google could have continued to support EAS without paying Microsoft, that is the dirty secret Google doesn't seem to mention, as they focus on the 'Exchange' class ActiveSync that is designed for enterprise and does require licensing.

Microsoft made no changes to push Google to dump their support, yet Google decided to dump it anyway, and sadly it doesn't hurt Microsoft, it hurts customers and Google's own customers, which is a bit evil.

Asking for Google apps when you have a web browser. I mean, really? Did even Windows users go full retard? I have a 24" screen on my desktop but even on my 15" laptop I have 2 pages opened side by side. It's like the editor never heard of desktop shortcuts.

I'd take windows and tabs on Windows rather than full screen apps that basically show exactly the same content from the web in a prettier shell. Everything Google shows you is from the web. Its not a 20 GB PC game that's stored on your hard drive nor does any of its content lies on your hard drive.

lol how the hell is people supposed to buy a junk called "chromebook" in order to use google's services instead of simply using microsoft alternatives that are as good if not better(NO ADDS!) than google's with a proper useful OS(windows) is beyond my understanding
there is only one service from google that i use and need some times; youtube... and maaan im so sick of using it they now force me to use their damn gmail thing instead of my simply nickname even facebook lets me use mi nickname to login and they keep asking my freakin phone number for stupid security wtf how can they even talk about security if their entire bussiness depends on advertising, its the most annonying webpage i have to use nowdays and im fuckin desperate to see a damn alternative from MS or even a new player like facebook
i see how google loses this war pretty easy

Gmail and Live mail, both are used to be my main email account depending on sistuations. However, now live/outlook is only the main email account. I only use gmail when I need to register something that I know they may send me spam mails.

Like people here I ditched everything for MS services and Ive enever looked back. MS services like Email and so on are the best in the industry. I had to log into my Gmail account for some youtube comments a while ago and couldnt belivee how messy and hard it was to use in comarison with Outlook and Hotmail. Bing is much more accurate than google and safer, not selling your informaiton to websites and other forums for advertising and so on, and MS in the UK are putting out TV adverts stating MS's comitement to privacy and safety. I love them

The whole situation is a joke. Google takes advantage of every human on the planet that uses any of its programs and services. Microsoft tries to accommodate people who are pretty entrenched in the Google ecosystem and...Google acts petulantly & withdrawals needed support. I don't mind Microsoft's stance on this at all. They just need to work on their own ecosystem and make it more accessible. Google can fly a kite...

i am just courious too know what gonna happen if microsoft choose not to support any google application. like peoples cant run gmail on there windows device , no google search , no gtalk . out there in real world almost all computer mechines work on windows. now i remember words from a movie Improvise Adapt Overcome ~ thats what peoples gonna do with google .if microsoft block them from every where peoples have alternate ways and much more like google product. and i am sure with in a year peoples gonna adat outlook, bing, bing maps as there primary applications . adn they would definetly say there was a Company named goooglee Pheeeew :D they used to provied e-mail service. and after 2 years NO ONE GONNA remember there name even

If MS acted the ways that google does, they would be vilified beyond belief! There would be article after article portraying them as the bully and google as some sort of hapless, billion dollar victim.
Matter of fact, take Skype... Skype is what it was long before MS bought it. Same with youtube, youtube is also what it was long before google bought it. But if MS refused to create a skype client for android devices the tech world would lose their collective shit, and revolt! Google refuses to make a decent usable YT app, and their bullshit reasons are backed up.

My first smartphone was an Android -- the HTC G2. It was ok, but I had to have a Gmail account for the store. Great yet another spam account, but I dealt with it. I could access my email from my ISP, and hotmail just fine. Google was built in search, same with maps, and I was ok with to until I realized that everything I did on my phone with g services was tracked not only to garage me with other services and products that I might like or want, but also sold to other companies. This was the real cost of this "free" os and services. Then after one update google no longer supported my phone. So I was stuck with a very buggy os that froze at least once a day.

I bought my 920 in launch am now fully on Microsoft and loving it. Bing gets the job done, the phone handles mail perfectly, and my contacts and calendar are available on all my devices. Nokia here is as good as if not better than Google maps. I still use you tube occasionally.

While I do like the universal search in W8.1, I do fear that Microsoft is going to get in trouble with the EU by not allowing other search engines which is BS.

What I find amusing in this discussion is that not one person has bothered to discuss what happens if you flip this analogy around. The Microsoft supporter actually WINS and suffers little to no negative impact at all.

If you're a Microsoft fan in a Google world, you can get along just fine... All of Microsoft's major services are now available on the Android platform, except for Office itself (which we know is coming), and there's QuickOffice and OpenOffice that are available on Android in the meantime. Bing, Hotmail, Skype, SkyDrive, and so much more are freely available and work great on those platforms.

This means that in spite of all the hullabaloo about how evil Microsoft is, they're the ones being open and supporting everything. And while you don't lose anything going to Google, a Microsoft fan actually wins and gains on Microsoft platforms, because the overall experience is greatly improved and enhanced on Windows devices. So maybe Microsoft isn't the big evil company everyone wants to believe they are.

And you know, that is the thing. Google always said that they would do no evil. But people are starting to realize just how evil the company really is. It just like the fiber internet service. They are cherry picking the best areas with the best deals and basically paying customers to use their service. Google knows that the business model is not sustainable. And there are very few companies with such a large hoard of cash that can do it.

No, I think they were always intent on taking over and people either followed them blindly or were pushed/pulled along. I saw the writing on the wall with Google back in 2004/2005 with the introduction of Gmail. It was very clear they were planning big things. However, you're right... the whole point of WEB services is to be everywhere... and here's Google saying, no... we're going to be everything on OUR platforms and for the rest of you... nothing.

Even Google's services on Apple are very slim these days. I don't think it will be long before they declare iOS off limits too.

Man, I'm so glad I have absolutely nothing in Google's ecosystem. It wasn't even a conscious decision that I made - I just genuinely hate all of their products. Their browser, their e-mail, their social networking; everything they make is just garbage. Happy coincidence in my case, I suppose.

I'm still using Gmail along with WP8. And while I can live with e-mail and calendar syncing at an hourly rate, the thing that bothers me is actually the fact that I can only sync one calendar from my account (I have three).

It actually makes me consider ditching Google services and move entirely over to Microsoft. I sucks to be a consumer in the middle of this pissing contest.
Email is one of the services that I can't just walk away from, and Google knows that. For Calendars & Contacts, I can store that information anywhere, and it won't impact me at all. The bigger issue is email, I need to know that the people I've been communicating with for years will be able to reach me whenever they want, without me having to update everyone on my new address.
Let's just say, if email offered "porting" in the way that the telephone business does, I would have jumped ship away from Google a long time ago. If it weren't for my reliance on this old address, I would not be supporting their business.

While the lack of apps is sometimes frustrating for some, why is it such a big deal not to just use the internet browser to attain the same functionality? After all, the desired features were made for the internet, are fully featured on the internet, and with tabbed browsing and automatic page loads everything can be right there with the launching of one's favorite browser (IE for me for phone and computer, thanks). It's what I do with my WIndows Phone, and, excepting loading up files (i.e. changing a profile picture with something onboard my Lumia 900), everything else seems to work perfectly. I mostly only use Facebook, sometimes twitter, tried instagram when I tried an android for a few weeks (which sits in a drawer now) and found it boring and wasteful when all my shared photos go on Facebook where everyone already is anyway. I don't use a youtube app, I go to youtube.com. I don't use WPC's app, I go to the website. Wash, rinse, repeat. The only apps I really use are weather (thanks to Live Tiles) and games.
Because of google's attitudes and inferiority, I've actually closed my gmail account and had new business cards printed up with my Outlook email address (which, if you don't use it, you should really try it. Blows gmail out of the water in every way I use it for). I no longer recommend android to friends and family (why would I when Windows Phone is so much easier and functional to use for most folk?), I haven't used google search since Bing came out, and, excepting YouTube, I believe I'm google-free. Makes me feel like I beat a disease, really.

I used to say the same thing, but more and more I'm surprisingly more interested in an app experience. There's no tracking cookies or ads in the app experiences... and when there are ads, you can almost always pay to remove them, which is a strategy that has never worked well on the web.

I think the browser experience is great, probably even preferable on a PC. But I can't agree with you when it comes to mobile usage. Metrotube is far more useable on my 920 than m.YouTube.com, same with wpcentral app, the experience is loads better than trying to use the website on the phone's browser. If you haven't given these apps a try, you really should, they may make a believer out of you.

I have just dumped Google and committed to an ecosystem, because it's going that way anyway. No regrets except the vulnerability of all my eggs being in one basket. The only problem is Youtube. Nothing MS can do will match its library of content. If myTube (phone) or Metrotube (Win8 & RT) stopped working I would have a problem I don't know how to solve. Not enough to switch to a Chromebook and Android, just enough to make me a casualty. Just as bad as it would be if MS blocked Youtube content in their app stores due to copyright issues (they could use this excuse, you know it). Let's hope neither side reaches for the nukes, right?

I was an exclusive Gmail and Chrome user and rather enjoyed using both. All that changed after I purchased my Lumia 920 last October, followed that up by downloading Windows 8 for my desktop and, finally, purchased a Surface RT. I've enjoyed the environment so much I just don't miss Google's services. Outlook, Skydrive, Xbox360, (adding an XboxOne soon) Win8, WP8 and IE fill all my needs.

while i think Google's pulling of dick moves here, it's understandable. They don't want people to switch to Windows OS's, which is understandable. They try to keep people away from it. If Windows platforms get traction, they have to build apps no matter what. I do my very best to help. 3 Windows 8 machines, 2 Windows Phones, RT next year. Ditched gmail for outlook. Would love to ditch google for bing, but bing sucks in europe.

Google + is better than FB I give them that but their restrictions of APIs.... Grow up assholes... But we make android free...oh fck off with that slow hacked pos. Microsoft you have also sinned in the past but I forgive.

Only things I use google for are YouTube, Google Earth and an alternative Gmail address I use for my Youtube account.I wouldn't, however, use my phone for any of these services. I'm very disappointed in Google and do see them having no choice eventually but to stop this "throwing toys out the pram" behaviour.

I'll be honest: I don't have anything major against Google. They can act pretty dick-y but truth be told, so can Microsoft. Neither is blameless.
But if this becomes a full blown war, with Google services being cast out of Microsoft's platforms completely (no YouTube, Google search etc) you know what I will do?
I'll go Apple. I'll jump both ships. I'm not leaving Microsoft for Google, that's for sure. If that's Google's strategy, well, it won't work. But I will also not be constricted on Windows without the entertainment provided by YouTube and forced to use Bing (nothing against, but I still prefer Google) as a search engine.

Surprisingly, not likely... if anything, Apple will lose due to their walled-garden approach. Apple users are even more locked-in than Google, because nothing they do plays well with anyone else. You're either Apple or you're anything but Apple, and history has shown time and time again with Mac OS that aside from niche group users, people don't ultimately end up staying there. Nevermind the cost factors.

Google came into smartphones and tablets using the classic divide and conquer strategy. They puked out 100s of cheap devices and flooded so that there were two choices... Apple and Android, and the average Joe can't afford Apple, so they bought what was out there, because Apple is never going to be the obvious or most affordable option.

Just gotta put up with a 1 on store tile and hope I don't accidentally press update all one day, google can't change the API either as MS used there official one without permission. Someone had balls at MS

All in all it really is the consumers who are getting hurt. Microsoft and Google both aren't helping their situatuion. Why should anyone use solely one company? I try to use the best of all worlds. I do tend to side with Microsoft, however I much prefer Gmail and their calendar applications over Outlook/Hotmail. I prefer Bing over Google by far... What I don't get is the mindset that they think by pulling support of apps or making things difficult that they are going to win the consumers. Just because you pull the Google calendar and mail services from Windows Phone and etc... you think I'm going to go out and buy a Chromebook? Many of my choices are not simply defined by preferences too. My college necessitates that I use Gmail and its associated Office and Calendar apps. In addition I frequently use various Apple devices. It's a mixed world and I'm sick of any corporation thinking I should only exclusively use their associated products and services. Because sometimes choice isn't an option depending on our environment. Just be flexible it's an open market, I get trying to promote your own product and it's services, I have no problem with that, be tenacious and proud of your product and what you have created; but trying to push me into a corner (regardless of the company) and say if I use one of your products I must consequently only use your software and services? Please, this war just gives me a headache trying to keep my digital life organized and functioning.

Didn't know people needed native applications on their desktops/laptops for google stuff. I only ever use YouTube.com and Gmail.com when using my PC. The web browser version of many things sucks on a phone, but on a PC it should be no problem at all.

I'm slowly moving away from Google services. Transitioning from Gmail now. If Microsoft had a YouTube equivalent I would switch there. Unfortunately I don't know what I would do about my blog on blogger though.

I personally use a bit of everything, but am probably more of a Microsoft customer than a Google customer (use Outlook.com more than GMail.com).
I can completely see a need for a more native GMail client but that's because I really can't stand the GMail web experience.
That said, I have to aggree with glassadam who basically said "since when do we need apps for these web sites?"
M.

Google is tired. "Get a chromebook to resolve a lack of vendor support for a web based mail service"? Really? I was an adamant fan of Google until it became the very beast it proclaimed to be against. Now even their web mail is clunky and slow with all of the annoying chrome. I just wanted Gmail! Thankfully, making an ecosystem switch was pretty trivial. But as for users like Nina... Can you not install Google apps in Win8 as emulating Windows 7/XP? Haven't tried so I don't know.

My email provider for years has been hotmail and yahoo for my spam account. I only use Bing search as google search is a distant thought to use. Never really liked it before Bing either. Also to my great surprise my YouTube account is used by my hotmail account. I had a Gmail account once just to see what it was like after a week or so I forgot the password and never went back into it. That was years ago lol. Also the chromebook is just a horrible thing to suggest to use. Its so hollow of everything. Oh well. Long live the king! (Microsoft)

There are a lot of comments here - might need a poll because our comments could easily get lost :-)

I use Google Apps for my personal email, and cannot switch unless Outlook.com hosted domains starts to support wildcard email addresses (i.e. the catch-all.) I also use Google Calendar.

I've moved my contacts from Google over to Outlook.com because I was hoping to switch, but the email issue has prevented that.

At work, we also use Google Apps for now, but I look forward to our switch to Office 365 later this year.

Everything used to be pretty nice on my phone, but once they dropped EAS, it got uglier, and I've started to look for alternatives to the Google platform. The funny thing is that I originally centralized my contacts in my Gmail account while using my old Blackberry because I was going to buy an Android device (one of the original Samsung Galaxy phones.) But then Windows Phone launched and I've been using it ever since.

YouTube is YouTube. Shrug - I rarely watch video on my phone, and the web browser works fine for playing videos.

Oh, and lately I've been using Windows Live Essentials/Mail on my laptop and desktop, where I use IMAP to check my various Google Apps email accounts. Only on my Surface RT do I use the Modern Mail app.

I had no problem dropping Gmail since I can forward my mail to the Outlook(Hotmail) account Ive had for about 10 or 11 years now and who wouldn't wanna use Bing over Scroogle. The rewards are AWESOME!!!!

My primary email account is Yahoo, so no major problems there (other than no flagging emails, etc.). While I do have a Gmail account I rarely use it.
The Google calendar is what I can't totally drop. Luckily I can access it decently well through Cronos Calendar. I'd love to switch to the outlook.com calendar, but it lacks functions I need (ability to have more than one pop-up alarm for the phone, and the ability to customize the reminder times [the default options don't cover everything]).

Well its easy for us here on WPCentral, as we are mostly (if not all) WP users. So we all sing along with the choir, but there are lots out there who won't give up google search. Personally, I prefer Bing search on all my devices. Use Office 365 for business and Outlook.com for personal. YouTube is a must, but I use MetroTube and MS YouTube app. One thing however that Google has the lead on is Translation. Bing translate is just not very accurate for me in Spanish or French.

I don't find it much of an issue. I still use gmail. The primary reason I kept with gmail so long was Microsoft's refusal to use 2 Factor Authentication. Now that that's not an issue the only thing stopping me is the hassel of switching over.
I still get instant push email on my phone, and to be honest, when I'm using my surface, the website works great, so I'm not that bothered that there's not an app.

Switching to bing took time. I had wanted to switch to bing for a long time. Not because of any Microsoft vs Google wars. But because I didn't want a monopoly in the search space. I had previously tried to switch a few times, but kept finding myself going back to google cause their results was better. I finally made the switch perminately about a year and a half ago. How does it compare to google? I find them pretty even.

Maps, In Australia, I do believe Nokia/Microsoft has some catching up to Google to do. Just on the bing maps webpage, While zoomed in on my city, type in a street name or something close by and bing decides to show me a place in US or England which matches the search.

Youtube, I love metrotube. I just really wish there was a true competitor for YouTube. I know the cost of running it is high, but I do get really annoyed with Google taking advantage of the fact that it's a monopoly.

Finally google docs, I find it funny that people make this argument. Office is so much better, and while I'm sure that there are people who prefer google docs, I doubt many of them would ever consider Windows Phone over Android.

Oh jeez Bing Maps, even Nokia Maps in Australia really has a long way to go before they catch up with Google. I get the same thing: half the time Bing gives me a town in the US or England when I'm searching for a concert venue or bar. FFS, why do you bother asking to use location services!! If I can get a street address, I can get to the road but street numbers are unreliable too.

Hehe...Hotmail used to be my junk mail email. Now it's my primary (after some junk mail tweaks) and Gmail is my junk mail! I delete most mail from that evil abyss! And Bing? Ah, Bing, how I love thee!!

A small portion of those 2 point what ever million google users are my fake email address I create when i sign up to sites i actually don't want to sign up for to get some content i'll use once, and then let the spam flow to google.

Other than YouTube, I dropped Google years ago. I never liked Gmail and I dropped Google search after using Bing for a few months. Really, none of this war bothers me much at all. Why? Because both Windows and Windows Phone have excellent browsers. If I ever want to use one of Google's browser-based services, I'll just fire up my browser and use it.

They are companies and will do what they need to increase their brand but it should not be at the expense of consumers. The only light could be if this war cause innovation on both fronts, allowing consumers to benefit from the disagreement as if one company is like "hey, we have better email or search"... Just my opinion.

Google does exactly what it told others not to do - "Don't be evil". MS and others are just as bad but at they don't proclaim different and marketed themselves as some California hippies freeing the world. In a world of evils, I take the lesser evil.

I was all about google till google plus. It opened my eyes. I had just bought an android phone so I had to wait. The cheap 520 got me out. I have a kindle fire and buy from the amazon store. I might look at 7 inch windows tablets when they come out. I think they need more apps though. I also have a Surface pro. I need an alternative to YouTube. My migration would be complete then.

OMG once i loved Google so much damn they started doing crap things acting like tech gods. switched to hotmail long back but im using google search and youtube. in india bing is not improved. MS need to act fast especially in improving bing and MS needs to start making profit from bing. please MS do something to make a big dent in google advertising revenue

The problem is that, in Wall Street's never ending quest for more growth, both companies have encroached into business where they now directly compete with each other for users.
It was inevitable.
Next up: Amazon. Watch them carefully. They also have expanded into 'devices and services' , have already begun encroaching into Microsoft's enterprise server business, and all hell will break loose once they finally release a 'Kindle Phone'.
And the thing with Amazon is, they're very formidable. Bezos is pretty much a genius, as much as Jobs or Gates were in their heyday, and since they're also THE major online retailer, can knock back both Microsoft and Google (via Android), by emphasizing or de-emphasizing products in their store.

The Mail application in Windows Phone 8 is fine for Gmail because I can refresh my messages whenever I want and have various workarounds to archive messages, and Here Maps pretty much wipes the floor with Google Maps. And although Bing is more convenient to use (especially Bing Music), it has sometimes let me down for searches, and I've had to resort to using Google in the browser. I've also stubbornly held onto Microsoft's awesome YouTube app before Google suddenly decided WP8 was relevant and told them to remove it.
All told, this is very uncompetitive and short-sighted, and there's no legitimate reason for it. Offering its services on a competing platform doesn't seem detrimental to their business, especially since they probably hate Apple just as much and yet have the iPhone all kitted out with Google services. Microsoft having an aggressive ad campaign doesn't warrant a technology embargo as a form of retaliation, and even though Microsoft has had a history of anticompetitiveness, I'm pretty sure they haven't deliberately withheld their technology from its competitors (sans stuff programmed in and for Windows, of course). I'm more and more thinking Google has essentially ditched their "Don't be evil" mantra.

Overall I will just keep using gmail as my primary email address and google as my primary search system. So far I have not had any problems doing that on my Lumia 521 phone. If it actually started becoming a big problem I would end up having to stop using windows phone.

I have tried to use Bing and for the searches I do the results are truly terrible. I returned to school to study Chemical and Biolgoical engineering and I find myself searching often for chemicals, material safety data sheets, protocols for lab techniques etc. Often the queries just result in nothing useful at all on the first page on bing but the entire page on google is useful with the first hit being exactly what I need for that. I admit these are FAR from the normal search people do and when I have used Bing on things that more people search on it does pretty well. I especially love unit conversion although it looks like Bing has that now also. When I last tried that a few months ago it didn't work.

This fighting though mostly just pisses me off. I use windows for all my engineering programs and classes. The best chemical plant design software runs on windows, MATLAB works very well on windows and so I don't realy have a choice and don't plan to give windows up but I am also not giving google up either. It would suck if I needed two computers just to get normal work done.

In my opinion, Gmail's labeling system (which I use extensively) is still superior to Outlook's folders due to the ability to view everything under labels in the inbox and being able to tell what's inside the inbox at a glance from the label colours...so, unfortunately, I can't switch to Outlook just yet.

While I do respect Google's products on their own I abhor their practices of bundling their toolbar, browser, and system changing foistware in so much third party software for Windows. This crap bogs down a PC so bad I just can't stand them for doing this. While Google no doubt makes money somehow through these repugnant practices, I'm sure they get a kick out of hijacking PCs with their foistware and further soiling the reputation of Microsoft because most neophyte users still think the poor performance of their computer is all Microsoft's fault.

The whole article is somewhat rediculous as all the google services are available directly through any web browser, you can install Firefox or Chrome or any other browser you want on a Windows 8 machine, you only have the IE option on RT as FF and chrome have yet to make an appearence on RT.
All the services like calendar, mail, maps etc are available, in addition all the other apps like Twitter, Facebook and whatever else you want is just a web browser away!!!! So why is such a big deal being made out for non availability of apps for the same things....
Its the same as Win 7, XP, Vista, Mac OSX .....
just my 2 cents

I don't really have any issues using my 3 Gmail accounts on my WP8. In light of the recent Google scandals I have been trying to become less dependent on Google. On my PC I've pretty much fully switched from Chrome to Opera (sorry, can't stand IE). I never updated the YouTube app from the really good one that Microsoft put out & Google had them remove. So I don't have an issue with that. I think Google's biggest problem is that they're trying to make operating systems & they're out of their league. Android & Chrome OS are crap, POJs. Why it's become so popular I have no clue.

I ditched Gmail and started using Outlook which works better than Gmail. I still have a Google account for YouTube and a gmail address for junk mail. I had no reason to stick with Google... They have become too big and arrogant.

This issue is no longer a problem for me. I have an Android phone (HTC One) so all Google services setup their plus of course Outlook app which works fine. My tablet runs on Win 8 and MS services work just fine for me and I don't really miss Google services while on tablet.

For email, like comments above, I have also mostly switched to Outllook which works better for me and even via IE, Outlook is more aesthetically pleasing and more user-freindly than Gmail.

IMHO, Google might in the long run screw themselves up by forcing users to try alternative services which they might like and stick there. Android might be winning the Smartphone war but it will take a long time to win the PC war. Even if PC sales are declining, there is still a huge user base out there.

Already used Outlook longtime ago. I changed from Google search to Bing. Use metrotube for YouTube. Now that Google reader is down I have switched to feedly. Next step is to delete my google account, doesn't need it anymore.

Flexibility and adaptability are key. I wasn't so attached to Google services so I switched as though I was snapping my fingers. Bing even has better search results than Google search. I couldn't believe this at first

At the moment it feels like the "war" is hurting our ecosystem. However I feel that in the long run it will do us more good than harm. As more people will start to move their email account and search provider before they move their whole os. Then when live tiles have become common place for people, windows phone will have a familiar face.

Before Hotmail became Outlook it was quite a glossy and shiny monster with lots of bell's n whistles. It wasn't pleasant to use at all. But some time ago things switched to opposite - Google began to make their products' interface less comfortable and usable with every update, and Microsoft began to care about simplicity and usability.
Switching to Outlook.com and other Microsoft services was quite easy, and killing Google Reader together with oppressing Google+ everywhere made Google's services for me almost useless. Since I keep my GMail account for some legacy reasons, I simply don't check it from Windows Phone. I don't like watching videos from the phone, so the only serious reason that stops me from completely dropping it is Google Talk. My wife is quite used to it, so I use Talk.to Messenger for GTalk/Hangouts.
In Russia Bing is by default replaced by Yandex, our local search engine that is quite good compared to Google, but for search queries in English I still open mobile IE and go to Google.

To be completely honest , I always thought that Gmail was the underdog that no one uses. And then I read this article which showed me that Gmail's popularity is just as much as Hotmail. Im surprised/shocked
And I still think so
I was brought up with Microsoft and have seen how good is it

I went Outlook and Bing as well. Outlook is so much eaiser and way less cluttered with BS. Bing gives far better results. As far as Youtube goes. I am keeping the old app Microsoft made. I have the orignal that can download videos without ads. So I update all my apps manually, just to say screw you google.

Heavy Microsoft user? Head to iOS over android you now have official office application, iwork suite can read and edit office docs unlike google docs, you have skydrive push email bing apps and now bing is integrated into siri.

Heavy user of both? Head to iOS because they both play great on there.

It just does not make sense to me the two corporations fighting apple for market share are giving it just as much of their services as they have ( for the most part not entirely) so if your a heavy bing/microsoft user android is probably not your best choice and maybe your find windows phone selection of apps not to your standard hey iOS has everything you need, and same goes for the google end. My point is both companies are fighting apple for market share and control in this mobile spectrum and instead of levying your strengths against everyone they are only doing it to each other.....i just think this methodolgy is going to hurt both of them. This is not an iOS fanboy argument this is merely a statement of facts if you look at what i have said and the facts of what is going on you will see this is not biased.

Would rather leave Gmail, as for youtube, i just use the MetroTube app it's great.
And i'm not sacrificing anything, Hotmail is great now if not better with a simple great looking interface, while Bing has proven equal to Google search to be honest, so it's my search engine now on mobile.

The day I jumped to Lumia 820, have slowly started to move away from Gmail and Google Search, on desktop still use those two but not to that full time usage, on my mobile never felt the need to use..easy transition to Live account, for searches I use that cute little maginifying glass on my mobile..why to type and then wait..when can search with voice, and I am really loving the features basically I more in love with my hardware more than the OS, but still I really like it, and the mail service is a no nonsense.
I have never really liked Google+, after Orkut was crushed by FB, never felt the need to go on Google+, and the best part now is i can updated my status on FB.Twitter all at once.
that people hub and me tile are one of the best thingh i love about WP8.

Sad to say but I still use google search, I don't really like Bing, half of the time I don't even find what I was searching for. But I do use both outlook and Gmail. I guess im in between both companies, they provide great services. Outlook is awesome though!!

Yes, I got rid of almost EVERYTHING Google and switched to MS. I sold my toys on eBay including my Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Xoom 2. I bought a Lumia 822, Lumia 928, and a Surface RT. I WILL NEVER LOOK BACK!

Dumped gmail, made outlook.com as my primary e-mail, cant get away from using google search unfortunately. Waiting to ditch Google drive, hopefully SkyDrive will be improved soon, i really need collaberative editing in SkyDrive then i am going to ditch Google Drive.
Best way to teach a lesson to Google will be to ditch their services.

I was also feeling pinched but I did just what AndyGriff did and completely ditched Google. Screw em. I went bing all the way and made gmail forward all my emails to my outlook account until i could get all my contacts used to hitting me at that alais. Honestly, between my Lumia 920 and Surface RT and destktop running 8 - I don't miss Google. And this is coming from a hardcore android guy for two years.

i like some innovation google have done, but, i still do not clear about google's preface " Don’t be evil ", now, when they got a power enough they decline many thing that not profit them and their bias (especially Microsoft),
i really cheer google for so long before wp7 come out, 'cause they is nice ( even though i only like two products search engine and chrome browser), but now, they resist to dev app for wp7 user " becuase it do not have a profit to do so ", is that only a reason??? i think because they fear for WP if they do that it will be a big threat for Android,
google product does not that good enough, they rely on big resource to make it run smooth,
BTW, i do not hate of google's way but i don't like the way they do to WP users because for me i do not attract to google products.
last thing last, i really love Lumia running WP.

I like the new Outlook.com interface and I do use that as an email, but my primary is still GMAIL.
Main reason is that I use Google voice and the integration between Gmail/contacts/voice is nice. No keeping multiple contact lists. Also, there are no good alternatives to Google Voice.
I may have to think about changing some things around when I get a new Window Phone, but right now my 7.8 is still syncing contacts and callendar.

I'm a Windows Phone 8/Windows 8.1/Google fan and I do feel the war between the two companies. I would have liked to keep the Youtube app that was posted a while back (the new and improved one) and I've used very slightly Youtube on my phone since I lost it.
I really like Gmail and on WP8 it works great from my point of view, but I would hate if it would somehow change for the worst. I would have liked a proper google maps app on WP8 and I thought of jumping ship a few times because of the great Google products that are available on Android.

I still use gmail and haven't noticed any issues. I think I'm grandfathered in with the active sync stuff.
But I agree that the only people being hurt are the consumers, and as a consumer I'm only interested in an experience that doesn't get in my way. So since I use mostly google services that might mean going Android. Or maybe iphone since that seems to work.
I don't understand Microsoft's thinking on this, but when you are a minority player you bend over and take it. They seriously need to get ahead of this.

Recently got a Lumia 928 on Verizon, and I'm extremely disappointed in the lack of app support for Google services.
Google is actively preventing Microsoft from developing their own YouTube app, and yet Google won't develop one either. It's exceptionally frustrating, but I'd rather deal with the third party apps on my Windows Phone than switch back to the feeling of using an operating system that the devs didn't care enough about to really fix.
I was on a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon before this, and it was just over a year old when it started really screwing up. Massive lag, huge glitches and bugs. And the general response was "Well just do a reset".
No thanks.

The issues between Google and Microsoft have changed how I view Google. I used to switch between platforms, iOS, Windows Mobile, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. I have an Android phone and a Windows 8 tablet. I still use Gmail on both, and I use youtube in the IE metro browser. For contacts and calander syncing, I have switched to Outlook.com, and am able to use exchange on my android phone. Between this and the death of Google Reader, my trust in Google has started to waiver. It is increasingly difficult to stay cross platform with services unless I want Google and iOS.

Personally I ditched GMail and Google search and started using outlook.com and Bing. I have very little cause to use anything Google. Also, since I use Outlook on my PC, MS has a great plugin that sync's with my web calender, so I'm fully sync'ed. The best part is I'm no longer a Google data point!

I used an android phone since the OG Droid came out untill I got my Surface Pro and Lumia 928 to go with it. I really enjoy my Windows phone even thoguh I primaraly use my G-mail account still. I still prefer Google to Bing for my search engine, but the biggest thing that kills me is the lack of Google Maps. Nokia's Here is decent, better than the iOS offering but its still no Google maps.

One thing to note with Google switching to CalDAV and CardDAV is that it is still a pain to setup on any non-Android device.

I have a Lumia 920 where I have my Google account as Exchange (hope this will continue to work) but I also have a work iPhone 4S. I tried adding the Google account without using Exchange... it was terrible.

You have to setup your email as IMAP

You have to set another account for CalDav and

You have to set a third account for CardDav or

You have to download the Gmail app and give it access to your contacts and calendar

Reality is that Exchange may not be free but it is a great all-in-one solution. Took me 5 minutes after setting up my new Lumia 920 to have all my contacts, all my calendar entries and all my email up to date. And it just works!

The only two reasons I use Google now are for Youtube or when I need a currency exchange rate. It is really easier to type "100 USD in EUR" in Google than to go open a site and then select what you need and enter the amount.

Not only did I go to Outlook.com, but I migrated ALL of my custom domains off of Google Apps and onto Microsoft's free Live Domains service. I also took ALL of my clients off of Google's paid apps service and migrated them to Live Domains, including every single one of their email domains.

With the exception of services for which no real alternative exists, such as YouTube, I've gone completely off Google. I still technically have a Gmail account, but I don't use it for anything.

The Biggest problem for Microsoft is it's nearly impossible to be a Google user on Windows Phone 8 BUT the converse is not true. Because Android has such large market share MS NEEDS to support its own services on Google - Outlook App, Skydrive App and there is not need for a Bing App if you're an Android user. This is Microsofts biggest problem. For the average user telling them to switch from their old e-mail to Outlook.com is usually not an attractive option (I still see lots of AOL and Yahoo mail addresses.

In my case I am a "Microsoft user". Actually I would say most of people have using Microsoft's products before than Google's and a lot of them just switched because google was "free".... But, what you see is what you get and "free" now means "Advertizing" and for some people means real "privacy" issues to be aware of....
i love my windows phone and I love windows 8 and experience skydive, office, Facebook, twitter and even Skype fully integrated and one click away is just great, I use Gmail and hangouts only because I have to (corporate account).
Once you experience that and try to do the same on Drive, hangouts, and google docs, you'll notice that it isn't the same.
i have to admit that Google has done a very good job, but good is not the best and Microsoft's new look and business strategy is way better than Google's.

Screw google I can honestly go with out their services. I use to have an android. Once I got my 8x I deleted all my google accounts and started using nothing but Bing and outlook. But with the example with the girl and the laptop just do your email in the web browser or change email service providers.

Maybe this is a case of Nina not knowing what she wants. Maybe she isn't worried about "official apps". Maybe she will download that aweful app that looks like youtube, but uses it anyways because she thinks its THE youtube. Maybe she ends up using the browser to do everything. Maybe she is one of those type of people who stubbornly cling to XP.

In this day and age, most people are just going to deal with the closest choices. THey get their email via the home page of the service they use. They might forget why they were on the service, realizing it after the 3rd news article they've read, they got on the computer to check their email. Just remember in the 90s/2000s yahoo had a peak and everyone used YMessenger and YMail. Back then, to use just their POP servers you had to pay $15 a month. It was either that they use some free email service or they had just dumped dial-up with Juno, AOL, Earthlink (but they don't keep your email) and still use that same email to tis same day.

My case is where my grandmother has a gmail and a hotmail which she never uses, its only for syncing settings and apps. She never uses them, instead prefers to use her frontier email. She doesn't care when her email comes in, she just cares for it to work when she wants to use it.

I moved from Google to outlook immediately. I prefer Microsoft and had to endure third party products for way too long. App developers better get on board quickly. There are more of us who have been waiting for the current windows platforms for a long time. Win8 and windowsphone8 will dominate once others realize the ease of use.

http://www.egga-referencement.ch/solutions.php It's true you know you're in trouble when the only company that can save you from Google's domination is... Microsoft. It really is no alternative at all. As far as relevance, the search engine that works best remains Google, but too much clutter is threatening its survival for the years to come, so we would need a third contender there.

Google is being an asshole, there are companies that pay for Google Apps, and want to use Windows Phone, they should make an app for WP, so you have the same experience , using tablet , desktop ou smartphone.

I think that this argument is very vacuous. I don't understand why this has to happen in the first place. If Google thinks that this will cause Windows Phone users to switch, they are sadly wrong. I have used Google services all the time.

I don't care if YouTube is not out for the Windows Phone. I will just use TubeCast.

I don't care if Google Mail isn't on the Windows Phone. I will just use the default mail application.

I don't care if I don't have Google Maps. I will use HERE maps as they work just fine.

I don't care if I don't have Google Docs. I will use SkyDrive.

I don't care if I don't have Google Search. I will use Bing. [Bonus: Bing Rewards!]

I don't care if I don't have Google Translator, I will use Bing Translator.

I don't care if I don't have Google Plus, I don't even use it.

I don't care if I don't have Google Shopping, I don't even use it.

I don't care if I don't have Google Music, I don't even use it.

I don't care if I don't have Google Calender, I will use Bing Calender.